Given the scope of the national and international supply chains used in modern manufacturing, an item may be assembled from many pieces that began life thousands of miles apart. Moreover, the final usage location of the assembled unit may be far distant from any supplier. This diversity of supply and assembly makes it difficult to preprogram devices that must have a geographical component to their operation. An example of this phenomenon is the vehicle-hosted telematics unit.
The telematics unit itself may be assembled in a first location, and then integrated into a vehicle in another location, with the vehicle then being shipped to yet another location. Indeed, a purchaser may then take the purchased vehicle to still another location.
Since a telematics unit is a communications enabled device, and because such units communicate wirelessly, e.g., in the cellular spectrum, it is generally necessary to program a telematics device with a MDN (Mobile Dialing Number) to enable use. This has lead to numerous techniques for ensuring that each vehicle-hosted telematics unit has such a number. However, due the geographic diversity of supply, assembly, sale and use as noted above, a geographically specific number may result in excess charges when the vehicle is actually purchased or transported after sale to an area remote from the locale associated with the geographically specific number. Moreover, the assignment of a “live” number to a device that is not yet in use tends to artificially decrease the supply of available numbers.
Although the use of “500” numbers can eliminate some specific issues, the use of 500 numbers tends to cause other problems and concerns. By way of background, “500” numbers, often also referred to as “follow me” numbers, provide a user with single number, e.g., (500) 123-4567, that is programmable to ring any one of a spectrum of possible destinations based on user location, time of day, etc. Thus, 500 numbers are nongeographically specific numbers.
However, the use of such nongeographically specific numbers still requires hardware manufacturers (or wireless carriers) to pre-program a 500 number in the network so that the device is recognized when used. Moreover, preprogramming devices in this way also imposes a shelf life on the device as a result of having a live number in the hardware. Finally, the use of preprogrammed 500 numbers requires adherence to the NANPA (North American Numbering Plan Administration) number utilization policy for 500 Numbers.